Truth Always Wins

There’s a brilliant scene in the 2015 movie “Concussion” when Dr. Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith) realized he’s kicked a sleeping bear.

Dr. Omalu’s research shows the brutal damage of repeated hits from football, America’s classic pastime. He warned people not to play the game, a blasphemy for nearly every red-blooded American male and the extremely lucrative college and pro football industry. The movie was absolutely brilliant, and I’ve always believed Smith should have been nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

I’ve also always believed the first person who tells a hard truth pays a steep price. “Concussion” is an exploration of those uncomfortable truths and how society treats the people who speak with candor and honesty.

Truth isn’t welcomed when people don’t want to hear it.

Truth doesn’t always matter when it goes against the grain.

Truth – and the first people who speak it – will be shredded, vilified and discredited.

The first people who said smoking was bad for us were laughed out of the room, usually by smokers who had a cigarette smoldering in an ashtray on their desk.

Everyone smoked – in the office, at the bar, at home, in the car. Lighting a woman’s cigarette was flirtation, an important step in that age-old dance between lovers.

It took decades for the truth of smoking to emerge, years of training elementary school kids about its dangers, increased taxes to discourage purchases, and stricter limits where smoking was allowed.

And yet, truth always wins.

The parables we grew up with reinforce this concept. The Greek goddess Cassandra who would foretell the future but was never heeded or believed. Hans Christian Andersen’s folktale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” tells about a little boy who is laughed at and ridiculed for pointing out those new clothes really aren’t there.

Truth requires all of us to be the person who points out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

The first person who speaks those uncomfortable truths must be prepared to pay the price. Unfair or not – it’s what will happen.

Truth requires honesty.

Truth requires a long game.

But it’s worth it.

Because truth always wins.

Liars and Other Charlatans

As the spokesperson a large state agency, reporters often asked me for confidential information. Many times, state law prevented me from providing the information.

My PRSA Code of Ethics also prevented me from lying. I couldn’t say, “I don’t know” or “I don’t have that information” when I honestly did. Instead, I pointed the reporter to the exact Michigan law that prevented me from sharing the information, often using a phrase like, “I would love to share this information with you, but legally, I cannot. I must comply with the law.”

My mentor once expressed his philosophy on lying quite succinctly:

You lie; you die – at least professionally.

He’s right. Liars have no place in the business world. And yet, right now, “truth” seems to be open for interpretation. (That’s another blog post for the future.)

White Lies Are NOT Kind

We are conditioned to tell white lies, those little half-truths that allow us to get along and go along with the crowd. And they’re just as damaging in the long run.

If someone asks you how they look, you can be kind AND truthful. If someone is sporting a truly awful look, be kind. “You know, I’m not a fan of that style of dress/shirt/jacket, but the color certainly brings out your eyes.”

Or another option: “Do you like it? Because that’s really all that matters! You should always wear things that make you feel confident.”

White lies are like a gateway drug. They signal to everyone that it’s okay to tell half-truths which lead to bigger, more dangerous lies.

Liars Create a Toxic Workplace

One of the questions I often was asked in job interviews was what did I need from my supervisor to be successful. My answer was always the same: “I need honesty and trust from my boss.”

Certainly there are times when my boss cannot share information. If the boss ever says, “I’m sorry, but I can’t share those details right now” then the conversation ends. It’s truthful; it show integrity and demonstrates respect for confidentiality.

I respect honesty and forthright communication, even when information cannot be shared for legitimate reasons.

But, if your boss lies to you, trust is destroyed. Any hope of an honest, respectful professional relationship is gone. If senior leadership routinely provides false information, the workplace is toxic.

You simply can’t trust that anyone will do right by you – no matter what you do in that environment.

When No One Believes Reality

Way back in my college news reporting days, I oberved an ugly neon green substance leaking into the Red Cedar River from an aging pipe as I was crossing pedestrian bridge behind the MSU Library. On that cold winter day, I was coming from a class and heading to my afternoon and evening hours at The State News where I worked as an intrepid campus reporter. That neon green substance was going to be my story.

Dozens of phone calls later and several hours of interviews, I learned the pipe was run-off from the nearby Spartan Stadium parking lot and the green liquid was merely the benign chemical used to melt snow and ice in parking lots. It was not toxic, not poisonous and it wasn’t contaminating the Red Cedar. It took several sources to convince me there wasn’t a massive environmental coverup happening on campus. What can I say? I was young, a green reporter [literally and figuratively].

I could have taken a leaf out of a certain Lansing area television journalist’s book and published a story of all the denials, but that’s not responsible journalism. My editor reined me in, and I moved on to another story.

I’m reminded of this every time I read something about how childhood vaccines cause autism. [They don’t.]

Or how our goverment is spraying mind control substances called chemtrails. [It doesn’t.]

Or how the current occupant of the White House insists he won the November election. [He didn’t.]

Or how there were massive voting fraud and schemes. [No evidence has ever been offered. The few errors and anomalies discovered were quickly corrected.]

In fact, about 25% of all Americans and nearly half of all Republicans actually believe Joe Biden’s election win was the direct result of voter fraud. [It wasn’t.]

Despite all the evidence, despite all the explanations from election officials and people trained to count votes, people still don’t want to see the truth – that Joe Biden won the election by winning more votes.

Skepticism is hard wired into my thinking. As a journalist, I lived by the phrases: “Trust, but verify.” and “If your mother says she loves you, get a second source.”

It’s one thing to be skeptical. It’s something else to completely disregard evidence and the truth sitting right in front of you.

Yes it’s true that Donald Trump’s campaign had more than 74 million votes, the highest number of votes an incumbent president has ever earned. Congratulations to him.

But Joe Biden had more than 81 million votes, and his campaign captured 306 electoral college votes. He won the election and will become the 46th President of the United States.

Those are simply facts. And no one gets to make up their own facts.

If we don’t agree on basic facts, we’re never going to be able to live in the same reality.

The last time our nation was this divided over basic facts, there was a civil war….